Please, no one pinch me. Because I really need it to be real that I’m heading to the French Riviera today. I think I am, but if it’s all a dream, I just don’t want to wake up.

I’m there for work but have added a little extra time. Talk to you next from France! A bientot! (See, I learned something growing up in Quebec!)

Nail-job craving: Airy.

How I satisfied that craving: Color Club in Blue-Ming.

How this nail colour makes me feel: Light on my feet. It’s like a breath of fresh air in nail colour form.

Love it or hate it: Love.

Good news for you beauty addicts: Amazon.ca has added beauty and health stores to their site. Now, you can peruse more than 80,000 beauty and health products while you’re putting in your order for books or DVDs.

With a $100 Amazon gift card in my wallet (a gift from Amazon.ca — thanks!) I checked out the new shops…and while I planned on sticking to practical staples such as vitamin D and calcium supplements, I’m mighty tempted by all of the fantastic beauty brands in the store: Bobbi Brown, YSL, Dermalogica, Burt’s Bees, Aveda, Clarisonic, Shu Uemura, and too many more to name. These four items here are on my not-so-short list:

• Diorshow mascara. Hello, luscious lashes!
• Laura Mercier Secret Concealer, to help hide signs of the all-nighters I’ve been pulling.
• Coola Plant UV Sunscreen Body SPF 30. I’ve never tried this, but love their Citrus Mimosa sunscreen spray.
• Aesop Ginger Flight Therapy. I don’t get anxious when I fly but I do get antsy and impatient; I’m hoping this’ll help me chill.

What’s on the top of your beauty and health shopping list?

Looking to tone up for summer? There are cute bikinis, midriff baring tops and short shorts to wear, after all. Well, here’s that Barre Beautiful giveaway that I mentioned a few weeks ago! The prize is a two-week pass to classes at Barre Beautiful (learn about the workout’s benefits here). If you’re super keen, you can try a different class every day, or do back-to-back classes. I am taking classes there, too, so may even bump into you there (definitely say “what up!” if so!).

To enter, here’s what you have to do (enter once all three ways to increase your chances!):

• Write a comment below about which Barre Beautiful class you’d try first. (Read about them here)
• Tweet “I want to win a two-week @BarreBeautiful pass from @healthswellness because I want to get fit for summer.”
• Like the Health & Swellness page on Facebook and write “I want a Barre Beautiful body.” on the Barre Beautiful giveaway post.

Giveaway closes Wednesday, May 22 at midnight (EST). The winner will be chosen at random and announced on Health & Swellness.

Enter away, my pretties, and good luck!

A fragrance and nail polish (and nail art!) collab? Yes, you’ve got this beauty lover’s attention.

Ralph Lauren’s collaborated with Essie to create four exclusive nail polishes for the RL collection of Big Pony fragrances for women.. There’s four fragrance personalities: sporty, sensual, free-spirited and stylish — each in bright coloured bottles and the Essie polishes matches each shade.

And taking it to another level, Essie Canada also had their lead nail artist, the lovely Rita Remark,create custom nail art looks for each personality. For a tutorial on creating the sensual nail look (my fave of the four) clickon over to Fashion Magazine. Fragrance-wise, though, the sporty #1 is calling my name. I don’t think of myself as sporty, but the freshness of the scent seems just right for spring. Spring does make me want to be sporty, come to think of it.

In stores now, each set comes includes a 50-mL fragrance and matching Essie polish in a drawstring bag ($47 each at the Bay and Sears). In Quebec (my hometown province, what, what!), a the bag includes a 30-mL fragrancem, a 50-mL body mist and the matching polish ($67 each exclusively at Jean Coutu).

What personality are you? Sporty, sensual, free-spirited or stylish? And does your fragrance preference match your nail art style choicer?